Cats for People Who Don't Know Cats

This subject was on my mind this morning.  You see we adopted our cat without really knowing anything about cats.  I've had barn cats etc., and I had one indoor/outdoor independent cat (I'm not sure it is fair to say "I had" for him) but this would be our first indoor cat.

Sitting by the backdoor chattering at birds on the deck.  We feed the birds from the side of the deck and Caruso LOVES to sit and watch them.

We made a few mistakes along the way, some of which weren't too bad, and a few we had to change IMMEDIATELY or Caruso would suffer.  I can't stress enough that a GOOD VET is your best source of information!  However, if I called my Vet every time I had a question I don't think she would be our Vet for long!  I tend to do research on the web.  When I find something that looks credible I do cross reference it and make sure it isn't just a wild idea. 


He LOVES quilts, and quilts in a beam of sunshine
 is irresistible to him.

 Tidbits I've learned
Did you know that you should be feeding and offering water to your cat out of stainless steel bowls?  I didn't until we found out the hard way.  First of all ceramic and plastic bowls have surfaces that aren't smooth (yes even though the ceramic bowl is glazed and feels nice and smooth) and the irregular surfaces allow bacteria to cling and offers an easy place for it to grow.  Second of all both ceramic and plastic bowls can cause a cat to get "Chin Acne" little blackish pimples!  So we switched Caruso to all stainless steel bowls. 

Did you know that you should be changing your cat's water EVERY DAY?  I didn't know that, but we did it out of concern that Caruso have fresh water!  When we started off with him we had a self watering system.  We thought, "Wow how nice!  Container with clean water, it bubbles when it fills the bowl, and he couldn't tip it."  We couldn't forget to fill it etc.  Boy were we wrong.  First of all the bowl got dirty and slimy quickly.  Since we didn't change the water daily, it was really gross.  A contributing factor to Caruso's kidney problem was he wasn't drinking enough water.  Was it because of our poor choice in water container?  Who knows, but when we threw that out and went to stainless steel - he drinks like a camel who won't see water for days.  (He doesn't have diabetes).  Another note for people how have filtered automatic waterers - you need to change that filter OFTEN apparently bacteria grows there profusely.

Did you know that a cat's water and food dishes should be set apart?  I didn't have a clue until one day, during the course of a conversation, our vet told me that.  I was a bit sceptical but I gave it a try and Caruso loved it!  He drank more and seemed very happy.  The bowls are in our kitchen and they are about 12 feet apart.  I called up my daughter, who has a cat, and told her.   She gave it a try for her cat and again he LOVED the new setup.  You may want to give this a try in your home.

I do not use the pretty nylon collars anymore.  Caruso would scratch the collars and eventually they would become unsightly - but that isn't why we don't use them.  When he would scratch, sometimes he'd hook a thread and pull which tightened it on his neck.  Our vet suggested and we have switched to "Beastie Bands for Cats" I found them for about $6.00 each on Amazon.

What's around the bend?   I don't have any specific ideas about posting on cats - but if you have any hints or ideas, please comment below and I'll share them with the blog!